'World's Congress of Religions' which is considered the first interreligious / interfaith
conference. In 1893 the
Parliament of the World's Religions (PoWR) held the first
World's Congress of Religion in the
World's Columbian Exposition. In 1900 the first
International Congress for the History of Religions was held in Paris. In 1903 the
Religious Education Association (REA) was founded. In 1964 the
Holy See founded its
Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue with its
Pontifical universities in Rome. seminal
golden rule interfaith poster, one of the first interreligious studies
educational resources. In 1973 the
Scarboro Missions was founded by the
Catholic Church in Canada and developed the first series of interfaith
policies and
open educational resources (OER) which are still a standard in the area. In 1990 the
Arigatou international Global Network of Religions for Children (GNRC) was founded to research interreligious studies education possibilities for kids. In 1996
Diana L. Eck co-founded the
Pluralism Project at the
Harvard University with
Robert Wuthnow and
Robert D. Putnam and the
OneSpirit Interfaith Foundation started offering
ordination-based training in
interfaith ministry in the United Kingdom. In 1997 the
Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA) was founded., considered one of the founders of the field. In 2002
Eboo Patel founded the
Interfaith Youth Core (IYC) that developed
multifaith space and
chaplaincy groups in universities. He coined the nameInterreligious / Interfaith Studies name for the area in the seminal book of the same name that founded the area officially. In 2005 the
European Society for Intercultural Theology and Interreligious Studies (ESITIS) was founded. (IJRS). In 2009 the
Journal for Inter-Religious Studies (IJRS) was founded. In 2011 the
Search for Common Ground developed the
Universal Code of Conduct on Holy Sites and the
Future for Religious Heritage (FRH) was also founded. In 2012 the
KAICIID Dialogue Centre founded the
Joint Learning Initiative on Faith & Local Communities (JLIF&LC).
Jennifer Howe Peace founded the
Association for Interreligious / Interfaith Studies (AIIS) which convenes annual meetings. It was pivotal to allow the
University of Wales first
doctoral programme in the area. In 2021 the
Hartford Theological Seminary founded in 1883 became the
Hartford International University for Religion and Peace. In 2022 the
Frankfurt–Tel Aviv Center for the Study of Religious and Interreligious Dynamics was launched by the Israeli
Tel Aviv University and the German
Goethe University Frankfurt. In 2022 the
Teachers College of the Columbia University founded the International Interfaith Laboratory (
Interfaith Lab). In 2023
Hannah J. Visser organized a seminal research on the field's
bibliography. Interfaith Research College Harmony Scholarship awardees. == Definitions ==